Marketing Buddy

The Marketing Buddies are regionally-aligned colleagues who work with the national Marketing team to deliver external regional community tech events.

Contributing to our local communities is in Infinity Works' DNA, and it's something we see as an essential activity. We want to be recognised as a champion for our local communities. By engaging with the broader tech community, we build our regional presence, and it's a great way to raise our profile with prospective customers and colleagues.

Who are they?

The Marketing Buddies are colleagues who've volunteered to help develop Infinity Works and raise awareness of our brand in their respective tech communities. The roles provide an excellent opportunity for people to learn new commercial-focused skills, boost their personal brand, and contribute to developing Infinity Works — an ideal discussion point for performance reviews. It's important to stress that the Marketing Buddies don't do these roles full-time, and they don't receive any overtime; it's a part-time commitment in addition to their consultancy work.

The Marketing Buddies work closely with the national Marketing team, their local Talent Acquisition colleagues, and their regional leadership teams, including CSLs and TSLs. Our current buddies are listed below:

Birmingham:

• Adam Alyan
• Agnes Bray

Leeds:

• David Race
• Edvinas Janusevicius
• Katie Mortlock

London:

• Andrea Liste Villares
• Billy Calladine
• Javier Arranz

Manchester:

• Ann Barr
• Kaily Newman
• Steffen Kludt

Scotland:

• Huriyah Hussain
• Duncan Magill

Marketing Buddy role responsibilities

• Organise external regional community tech events on behalf of their region to ensure Infinity Works has an active presence among the local tech community.
• Promote and encourage colleagues to attend key regional events by highlighting them via relevant channels, including Slack, Teams, and internal events like local Town Halls.
• Build relationships with the organisers of targeted third-party meetups to support them through sponsorship (i.e. catering costs) or let them use our event space.
• Find colleagues within their region to get involved in activities, e.g. delivering a talk at a meetup.
• Participate in regional commercial calls to discuss progress, listen to ideas, and share updates.
• Attend the Marketing Buddy calls to update the national Marketing team on plans and progress and work with them to promote their region's activities.
• Track and manage costs/expenses for their region.

What kind of events do they support?

The Marketing Buddies are responsible for organising external regional tech community events. Examples include:

Meetups:

• Hosting third-party meetups (either in our hubs or an external venue).
• Arranging speaking slots at third-party meetups.

Hands-on workshops:

• Organising Infinity Works Tech 101 sessions.
• Arranging partner workshops (e.g. AWS Immersion Days).

Other events:

• Organising women in tech events for external people.
• Arranging involvement in local schools or university events.

If you have an idea for an external regional tech community event, speak to your local Marketing Buddies in the first instance. Be mindful that the Marketing Buddies receive lots of ideas, and they have to prioritise based on which events will be the most valuable to Infinity Works, so they can't do everything.

How can you get involved?

You don't have to be a Marketing Buddy to get involved with external regional community tech events. Organising a good event takes time and effort, so if you'd like to help and offer your support, reach out to your local Marketing Buddies. Here's a list of ways you can help:

• In specific regions like Leeds, we need a trained fire warden and first aider at each event to be able to run it. Accenture runs training sessions for people to become qualified. Let the Marketing Buddies know if you have an external talk you'd like to deliver; they can help find a relevant meetup and speaking opportunity.
• Make connections with local meetup organisers if you know them personally, and then introduce them to the Marketing Buddies.
• Attend our events and network with attendees, which is always essential. It's also helpful if you can assist the Marketing Buddies with tasks like arranging seating, putting out food and drinks, and tidying up after the event has finished.

Other useful information

Marketing Buddies aren't responsible for event sponsorships (both local and national), which involve a financial commitment to be involved. The national Marketing team finds and reviews tech conference/event sponsorship opportunities and assesses their suitability against Infinity Works' business objectives. If you know of an event you think we should be looking at, please get in touch with iw.marketing@infinityworks.com. Be mindful that there are so many good opportunities that we can't do everything and prioritise accordingly.

Marketing Buddies aren't responsible for tickets to external conferences or events. It'll be classed as training time if you want to attend something during standard 'working hours'. Remember, everyone gets five days of training. Check with your Account Lead that the timing will be fine with your engagement, and speak with your local CPL or TSL for approval for the cost of any tickets. Read more about the conference process on our Sourcing training handbook page.

The Marketing Buddies aren't responsible for marketing activities such as office branding, collateral development, thought leadership, or other regional tech community events. Speak to the national Marketing team if you have any questions or ideas about any of these.

Contact

If you'd like to find out more about the Marketing Buddy role, please contact iw.marketing@infinityworks.com.